


foster brothers

by girlf_riends



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: Foster Care AU, Gen, Platonic Relationships, Time Travel Shenanigans, evan is 17 and connor is 12 so no shipping them you sick fucks, really complex foster care au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2018-12-17 06:20:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11845734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlf_riends/pseuds/girlf_riends
Summary: Connor Murphy is a very disgruntled 7th grader who is very tired of how skittish his sister is, his fathers insistence on playing baseball, and he has a deep-seated hatred for every foster kid that steps into the Murphy household. Flint, Ivy, Remi, Ella, John. All came and went without any changes in the household. Except for this one.“Listen, the kid we’re gonna have has crippling anxiety. It’s hardly even funny. He had a panic attack over not wanting to cause the social workers any sort of trouble. Even he has no idea how he got here, he's been out of a home for god who knows how long. He just... needs some support from a loving family.  So, please, don’t be awful to him.”Connor rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I can totally do that."





	1. everything sucks forever

**Author's Note:**

> Connor is in 7th grade, Zoe's in 6th, Evan is a senior in highschool. So, if you're looking for shipping, go find another fic! This one's about familial love. Sorry.

On September 13th, 2013, Cynthia knocks on his door and asks Connor to come out to the living room. They need to talk, as a family. It’s nothing important, but it’s important. So, Connor trudges out of his room into the living room, and plonks himself down onto one of the worn down couches. Larry’s sitting on a different one, with Zoe. For the weekend, everyone’s dressed nice - casually, but nice. It makes Connor wonder if he should change, but more importantly, if _it’s_ happening again.

Cynthia starts speaking, while Connor picks at the sleeves of his hoodie.

“So, I just wanted to let you two know, that me and your father have been talking, and we’re considering letting another foster kid stay here.”

Zoe looks happy. Connor mumbles to himself, “of course you are.”

Larry almost immediately stands, before Cynthia makes him sit down again. “Connor, do _not_ speak to your mother that way.”

“Oh, boo hoo, I’m not happy that you’re letting another whiny 10 year old into the house, and thus, into my shit!”

Cynthia tells him off this time. “Watch your language, Connor. And he is not 10, we already know who it’ll be, it’ll only be a month, so you have no excuse to go off on me.”

Connor opened his mouth to argue. Larry shut him up with a glare, before turning to Zoe to ask her, “How would you feel about it?”

Zoe enthusiastically nodded. “Yeah, I just want to know who they are.” Beat. “I mean, if you happen to know, it’s okay if you don’t.”

Cynthia smiled at her. “We do, we’re going out for a bit today to actually talk to his caseworker… He’s 17, a boy, just needs a place to stay. Showed up out of nowhere with his backpack, a phone, and that’s it. No family or anything. They say he’s very kind, though, and easy to work with.” Zoe nodded along, as this information was relayed.

“So, he’s a spineless teenage runaway.”

“Connor, shut up.”

“How about you shut up, Zoe?”

“Kids.” That was Larry. He was really good at shutting people up. The room faded into silence before anyone could fight, for an uncomfortable amount of time. About fifteen seconds passed, give or take some, before Larry spoke again. “...Cynthia, what time is it?”

“4:23. We should go soon, we need to be there in twelve minutes.” Cynthia got up, presumably to go grab her purse. “You two can handle yourselves for an hour or two, right?” Zoe and Connor nodded simultaneously, just to please their mom. “Okay. We’ll bring home dinner. We’ll be back soon.”

Connor prayed they didn’t bring back more supermarket fried chicken. He hated it.

That night, Connor didn’t eat, because they brought back supermarket fried chicken.

 

The next day, Cynthia bursts into his room again, and tells him that they’re picking up the foster kid. She just walks in, and sits down on Connor’s bed next to him. Connor closes his laptop, and sits up.

“What.”

“Connor, we need to talk.”

“Is this about the foster kid shit?”

Cynthia sighs. “Language. Yes.” She pauses, considering what her next words should be, before continuing. “Listen, the kid we’re gonna have has crippling anxiety. It’s hardly even funny. He had a panic attack over not wanting to cause the social workers any sort of trouble. Even he has no idea how he got here, he's been out of a home for god who knows how long. He just... needs some support from a loving family.  So, please, don’t be awful to him.”

Connor rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I can totally do that."

Cynthia finally got up, headed for the door. “And please, get dressed, it’s two pm, and we’re going to pick him up.” By ‘him’, Connor assumes the foster kid. So, as soon as he hears the car leave, he waits ten minutes before bothering to do anything. Finally, he bothered to get out of pajamas and put on some real clothes. Something that’d make an impression that said ‘don’t fuck with me or I’ll slit your throat’. Ripped black jeans, combat boots, black hoodie that says “I’M NOT ANTISOCIAL, I JUST DON’T LIKE YOU”, one of 45678987656789876 chokers bought at Hot Topic.

Perfect. He looks threatening. Especially now that he hasn’t been cutting his hair. It’s now a bit past his chin, which is impressive. However, it’s also very curly and annoying. Maybe Larry had a point? Well, it’s a point Connor is going to ignore, because the car is pulling into the driveway again, and Zoe’s rushing down the stairs, and Connor guesses that he has to go, too, but he just watches through the window. Some kid steps out of the back, and Connor’s a bit taken aback, because all he has is a worn-out backpack. All of the other kids had luggage cases, trashbags, anything that held more than a backpack meant for school. They must have been through more homes than this kid, then.

For a second, Connor feels a bit bad for him.

Then, he takes that feeling, curls it up into a little ball, and just fucking eats it. Shoves it in his mouth and tears it to little bits and swallows it. He doesn’t care about some loser teenager.

Connor hears the front door open, and decides to go down to the entry hall, just so Cynthia and Larry don’t yell at him. He sees the new foster kid. He’s sorta tall, fairly tan where it’s visible. Somehow, the teen is wearing a blue turtleneck and a grey hoodie and isn’t dead. Rather normal jeans and shoes. It must have looked like an average kid to Larry and Cynthia, but Connor saw something else. The way the kid was hunched over, how worn the edges of his sleeves were, his nails were ridden with hangnails and bitten to death. And, there was the deep, haunted look in his eyes that let Connor know that his life hadn’t been kind to him.

Connor felt a bit more guilty, but he violently ate that feeling, too.

Zoe waved. Larry clapped a hand onto the teens back. Cynthia smiled.

“Well, this is Evan Hansen, he’ll be with us for only a month.”


	2. case worker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're beginning to doubt their decision, but Evan sounds like a nice kid who just needs a place to stay.

On September 13th, 2013, Cynthia Murphy and Larry Murphy drove down to where they’d be meeting David. At 2:45, they ended up sitting in a very cramped office, with David. So far, he had been incredibly kind to the two, and still somehow had endless optimism about the situation. (Maybe he was just hired?) Even while sorting through endless paperwork, the ginger-haired man still happily went on about… well, whatever it was he had been talking about. Both Cynthia and Larry had lost track of what he had been saying a while ago. The man scooted back over to the two from a file cabinet, dropping a few papers on the table.

“And, there are Evan’s files. Lucky kid, he’s only been here two months. We actually found him in the orchard! You know, the local one that just closed down?” David said, going off into another ramble. “Some kids snuck in, found him passed out. Poor kid had a cast on him that we had to saw off, it was long overdue. Um- do keep in mind that most of the info on those files might not be true. Everything we know about Evan came from himself.”

Cynthia picked them up anyways, just reading them over. “..He’s seventeen?”

“That’s what he said. We do suspect that he’s a bit younger, but we just have to take his word for it.”

“...No family?”

“None. Either he ran away, which is what we suspect, and he doesn’t want to go home, or something happened to them. We’ve tried tracking down any family he might have, but… no luck.”

Cynthia put back down the papers with a sigh, and went back to paperwork. “Poor kid.”

“I know,” David said in agreement. “I’d take him in myself, but I just don’t have the money to, and no one else wants to take in an older child… You two are so kind, we’re so lucky you two came along.”

“So, then what are you not telling us?” Larry asked.

Well. That was out of nowhere.

David was visibly nervous, as he asked, “What are you talking about?”

“Sucking up. Making this kid seem so great? There’s something you aren’t telling us.”

The caseworker seemed to visibly deflate. “...Okay, there is one thing. We suspect that Evan has a severe anxiety disorder.”

Larry crossed his arms in annoyance. “There it is.”

“Well, what’s so bad about feeling anxious?” Cynthia asked.

“Cynthia, when I say ‘severe’, I really do mean it. Evan has been with us for two months, and he still has trouble speaking to us without stuttering, he’s had multiple panic attacks since coming here, one was over not wanting to cause me any trouble. He also has to take certain medications.” There was a pause. “...I really hope this hasn’t affected your decision to foster Evan. He’s a good kid, he really is.”

Cynthia and Larry both shared a glance. They then whispered to each other. Then Cynthia said, “It hasn’t.”

David seemed to be happy again. “Oh- Oh! That’s great! Most families don’t, uh, I mean, are you done with the paperwork yet? I’ll go tell Evan.” And as the couple nodded, the caseworker got up and left the room for roughly 10 minutes.

He returned, telling them that they could pick up Evan any time tomorrow. Their meeting came to an end. Cynthia and Larry returned home, stopping at the supermarket to get dinner.


	3. one month

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connor and Evan didn't get along well at first.
> 
> (Sort of a filler chapter. Sorry.)

There was an uncomfortable silence between the Murphys, and the foster child, before Cynthia spoke again. 

“He’ll be here for only a month, just a reminder. And, Evan, these are my kids, Zoe,” she gestured to Zoe, who was waving ecstatically, always happy to meet a new person, “and Connor,” she gestured to Connor, who was trying to stare into the depths of Evan’s soul.

Evan mumbled something that might have been “nice to meet you”, but no one really knew for sure. 

Cynthia’s smile was very forced at this point. “...Well… oh, Connor, how about you show Evan where the bathroom and guest room is? He’ll be staying there.”

“In the bathroom?”

“No, Connor. In the guest room. You’re  _ so funny _ .” Cynthia’s words had the slightest hint of sarcasm to them. “Listen, me and Zoe are going to go make dinner. Can you just do that for me?”

“Sure. I promise I won’t kill him.”

“Good. Does spaghetti for dinner sound good?”

Larry nodded as he walked off to do whatever, and Zoe followed her mother out of the entry hall, exclaiming that she’d help. That left Evan and Connor. Alone. 

Now, all he had to do was make sure this kid stayed off his ass. He stalked towards the kid, slowly circling him, looking over every square inch of him. He knew these kids got insecure over how they looked, even though Connor didn’t pay any attention to what they looked like. He ended up in front of Evan again, trying to make himself look tall.

“Alright, listen up.” He jabbed a finger at Evan, who still wasn’t reacting much. “You’re to stay out of my room, stay away from me, don’t interfere with the shit I do, and don’t talk to, bother, or go near any of my friends.” Everything he said was loaded to the brim with venom, hoping to get a reaction of any sort. “Got it?”

What he got instead, from Evan, was mild confusion.

“What? No answer? Cat got your tongue?”

“No, it’s just…” Evan’s sentence faded off.

“Just what?”

“...just hard to take you seriously, when, you know…”

“I  _ don’t _ know. What’s so funny?”

“You know, you’re just so...” Evan made a gesture, waving his hand around where Connor’s head would reach on him. “...Short.”

“Yeah. Really funny.”

“Also there’s a Hello Kitty sticker on your boot.”

“Wh-” Connor looked down, only to see the massive sticker on his boot, that had been there the whole time, yet he hadn’t noticed. “For fuck’s SAKE-” He knelt down, ripping it off with only partial success, before screaming at the direction of the kitchen, “YOU’RE DEAD TO ME, ZOE!”

There was a yelp from the kitchen, where Zoe was presumably helping Cynthia with dinner. Evan held back snickers.

Connor glared, and that was all it took to wipe the smile off Evan’s face. But instead of fear, like Connor had hoped, Evans face only displayed confusion. It pissed Connor off. Why wasn’t this asshole afraid of him? He blurted out, “What? What’s that face for?”

Evan only said, “Why are you trying to make me afraid of you?”

There was a beat of silence, before Evan continued. “Crap- that was rude I’m so sorry I shouldn’t be-”

“Your room is the second room down the hall downstairs, you can find the bathroom on your own, piss off.” Connor interrupted, before stomping off to god knows where.

Not much else to do but find it, and try to apologize again later, was there?


	4. your ghost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He's still there, in the back of your mind. These memories will never leave.

Evan didn’t immediately leave the guest room when he found it. Instead, he stood there, looking around the dull room. 

Alone. 

It finally occurred to Evan that for the first time in two months, he was completely alone. No one was here to bug him, worry about him, mess with him, whatever. It was just him, four walls, and some furniture. 

And a door. That too. But the door didn’t really bug him.  So, he decided to take advantage of the few minutes he’d get on his own before Cynthia called him out, for dinner, or whatever, so he’d have to eat with the family while they barraged him with questions. Ones that he felt like he wouldn’t want to answer. H e sat down on the bed. His bed, for at least a month.  Finally. Some time to breath. His bag was lightly thrown behind his bed, with nothing of importance in it. He took a few deep breaths. Just to keep himself calm. 

He ignored the ghostly figure sitting next to him.

“ _ Are you sure you’re gonna be able to relax? _ ”

God damnit, he couldn’t escape, could he? Even after somehow going missing, and waking up in what seemed like an alternate universe, Connor’s “ghost” still followed him. (Well, Evan knew it wasn’t really a ghost, it was a figment of his imagination, but the word ghost fit better.)

“Go away.”

“ _ Oh, come on! What’s so bad about this? This is better for you now, right? You like my family! Right? _ ” 

“Nothing you’re saying is making sense.”

“ _ That’s because I’m not saying anything at all. You’re talking to yourself. _ ”

“No, I’m not! Just-”

“ _ Might wanna keep your volume down. _ ” He pointed at the door, still slightly cracked open. “ _ Or you’ll let the whole family know they just invited in another crazy person. _ ”

“Shut up..”

“ _ You want me to tell them for you? _ ”

“No-”

“ _ Hey, Larry! You adopted a kid who TALKS TO HIMSELF! _ ”

“Shut up!”

Evan slapped a hand over his mouth.

Connor’s ghost stared at him.

He stared back.

Connor’s ghost cracked a smile. “ _ Guess I didn’t have to tell him after all. _ ” His grin widened, and kept on until it was far too wide to be normal on a human face. Eventually, teeth and gums spread all over his body until he didn’t exist. Leaving Evan alone, in a guest room, with only himself.

Evan heard the faint sound of silverware from the kitchen.

He was sure that it must’ve been some sick prank from the universe, making him get hopelessly lost, then having him live with the Murphys again - just, this time, he was alone. After lying to them about their dead kid, he was now trapped here.

Cynthia called him down for dinner, about five minutes after Evan had yelled at a figment of his imagination to shut up.


End file.
